BubbleStream

C L Roman

SACRIFICE

Synopsis

Fulfilling one’s destiny requires sacrifice…
Escaping a global catastrophe, angel-human hybrid, Shahara, lands safely in Babylon with her beloved Volot, an angel with a sacred mission. But the victory is a hollow one, for the world she knew has been obliterated. Battered by the loss of her family and the denial of her most cherished dreams, Shahara’s new life begins to disintegrate as she is lured by promises of power and fulfillment into the violent, blood-soaked ambitions of a ruthless enemy. With her marriage shattered and countless lives hanging in the balance, Shahara must make a devastating choice. Can she survive her decision, or will victory require the ultimate sacrifice? By turns romantic, suspenseful and terrifying, this epic fantasy treads the knife edge of human frailty and superhuman courage.

Author Biography

Cheri Roman writes fantasy and paranormal young adult. She currently has two series in the works: Rephaim and The Witch of Forsythe High. Most days you can find her on her blog, The Brass Rag, or working on her next novel or short story. Cheri lives in the not-so-wilds of Northeast Florida with her husband and Jack E. Boy, the super Chihuahua

Author Insight

Grief unrelenting

When you have lost everything, the temptation is to blame everyone. And grief hits all of us in different ways. For Shahara, it becomes the foundation of her existence.

Book Excerpt

SACRIFICE

Shahara moved through the days as if wrapped in a long, gray veil of sorrow. It was a barrier between her and the tasks of burying bodies and making plans to escape the catastrophe Danae insisted was coming. As if anything could be more devastating than what we have already experienced. The world became a faded replica of what it had been, one she could not touch through the all-encompassing shroud that was her grief. She persisted through the necessary tasks, but she could not feel them.

And then one morning the barrier broke. Shahara set a cup of milk on the breakfast table in front of her husband's full plate. As she turned to retrieve a bowl from the counter, her sleeve caught the cup, sweeping it to the floor. The world slowed and she watched the cup tumble, milk drops fat and round, spiraling into the air until the cup crashed, irrevocably broken, the shards milk-white and sharp against the packed dirt floor. In the space of a few heartbeats, the liquid was absorbed, disappearing like blood into the earth.

Volot knelt and gathered the pieces as she watched him. Accusations beat against her lips as the last protective threads of disbelief fell away. "Why is Ahba doing this to us?" Shahara whispered. "He took everything, and now he'll destroy the Earth herself? Because mankind irritated him?" Her voice rose, word by word, into a shrill squeak of outrage.

He looked up at her. Hesitant tendrils of light sought entrance at the open door and somewhere, a bird called morning greetings to her mate. It felt incongruous to her, like a dress stretched too thin, or shoes grown too tight, that the morning should come as it always had, when nothing was the same, or ever would be again.